Why More Women Don't Work in Tech

It is imperative to realize that, when it comes to technology and social media, it is harder for Canadians to find the resources available to them compared to our neighbours from across the border. Not to mention that the opportunities for young women in this sector are much more limited.

There are many key findings which suggest that this is true and through research one can see that support is much limited to Canadians in this sector. If we go in deeper and analyze the marginalized communities of a big Canadian city such as Toronto, for example, one can clearly see that opportunities become minimal particularly to young girls.

Many agencies that serve such demographic do not focus on making available education in career advancement which is cutting edge and up to date to what an employer is looking for. Before we even get to the discussion of job opportunities we must acknowledge the fact that when it comes to any of the male dominated subjects of Science, Technology, Engineering and Mathematics ( STEM), we are dealing with a systemic fact that young girls are not introduced to such studies early enough for them to generate an interest in this topic.

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Women In Tech To Follow

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Katie Jacobs Stanton is head of international strategy at Twitter. She has played an essential role in advocating the use of Twitter by President Obama's administration, serving as Director of Citizen Participation for the White House in 2009.
Follow @KatieS

Kara Swisher is a senior editor for All Things D. She tweets a steady diet of tech news, including not only breaking news and her own scoops, but also links to her favorite viral videos.
Follow @karaswisher

Xeni Jardin is founder and co-editor of award winning blog Boing Boing. Her work has been published in Wired, The New York Times, Los Angeles Times, and The Guardian.
Follow @xenijardin

Esther Dyson is an investor, entrepreneur, and commentator who specializes in emerging trends, philanthropy, space and health technology. According to her bio, she "operates as the Internet's court jester, a person of no institutional importance who somehow manages to speak the truth and to be heard when and where it matters." She sits on the boards of companies including Meetup and Boxbe.
Follow @edyson

Christina Cacioppo is an analyst at Union Square Ventures, a venture capital fund in New York City.
Follow @christinacaci

Jenna Wortham is a tech reporter at The New York Times (as well as a self-described "nerd" and "hustler.") She is an active tweeter, a source of Instagram pics, a breaking news provider, and has been included in over 3,600 Twitter lists.
Follow @jennydeluxe

Liz Heron is a social media editor for The New York Times. Previously, she worked for The Washington Post and ABC News.
Follow @lheron

Kashmir Hill is a tech writer at Forbes covering online privacy for a column called "The Not-So Private Parts." She's held positions at The Washington Examiner, National Press Foundation, True/Slant, and covered the 2008 Olympics for the International Herald Tribune.
Follow @kashhill

Julia Angwin is a tech editor and columnist at The Wall Street Journal specializing in privacy. She contributed to the team of reporters that produced the Journal's "What They Know" series focusing on tracking, data mining and other privacy issues.
Follow @JuliaAngwin

Dina Kaplan is a co-founder of blip.tv, an online platform for web series. Kaplan's reporting has won her an Emmy, Professional Journalists Awards and Associated Press Awards.
Follow @dinakaplan

Gail Carmichael is a PhD student in Computer Science at Carleton University. She is currently researching educational games and augmented reality.
Follow @gailcarmichael

Maggie Shiels is BBC's "first official tech reporter covering Silicon Valley," according to her bio and an excellent resource for Silicon Valley news.
Follow @maggieshiels

Denise Howell is a lawyer specializing in privacy, security, intellectual property and technology law. She hosts This WEEK in LAW, a netcast show, and blogs at BagandBaggage.com. Howell received her J.D. from UC Berkeley School of Law.
Follow @dhowell

Sarah Lacy is a reporter and senior editor at TechCrunch and an author of two books, Once You're Lucky, Twice You're Good: The Rebirth of Silicon Valley and the Rise of Web 2.0 and, more recently, Brilliant, Crazy, Cocky: How the Top 1% of Entrepreneurs Profit from Global Chaos.
Follow @sarahcuda

Katrin Verclas is co-founder and editor of MobileActive.org, which calls itself a "network of people using mobile technology for social impact". Verclas specializes in understanding how mobile phones can be used in civil society to increase security, accountability and other forms of participation in civic affairs.
Follow @Katrinskaya

Originally from Kenya, Ory Okolloh is a policy manager for Google. In 2006, she co-founded the parliamentary watchdog site, Mzalendo, in order to increase government accountability. In 2007, Okolloh helped launch Ushahidi, a crowdsourcing tool that uses Google Maps and text messages to document information during times of crisis.
Follow @kenyanpundit

Courtney Boyd Myers is the east coast editor of TheNextWeb.
Follow @CBM

danah boyd is a senior researcher at Microsoft, and visiting scholar at Harvard University's Berkman Center for Internet and Society. Interested in academic and anthropological conversations about technology? Check out boyd's blog and Twitter account.
Follow @zephoria

Emma Barnett is a digital media editor at The Daily Telegraph. She writes about tech, media, and cultural issues.
Follow @Emmabarnett

Rachel Sterne is chief digital officer for New York City, and adjunct professor at Columbia Business School. Even if you don't live in the "Big Apple", Sterne is a valuable source of information about how local governments are utilizing social media.
Follow @rachelsterne

Joanna Stern is a tech and gadgets reporter. Her work has been published in The New York Times, Engadget (where she was the reviews editor), and Gizmodo. She is part of a team launching a new tech site for SB Nation and currently blogs for This Is My Next.
Follow @JoannaStern

Gina Trapani is a developer and tech writer. Formerly with Lifehacker, which she founded, Trapani now focuses on developing software and co-hosting This Week In Google.
Follow @ginatrapani

Laura Yecies is CEO of SugarSync. With time spent as an exec at Yahoo, Netscape and Checkpoint, she's a well-rounded expert in mobile tech trends, consumer internet services, the Cloud for consumers and SMBs, and being a mompreneur.

Leslie Bradshaw is co-founder, president, and chief operating officer at a creative agency focusing on data visualization and social media, JESS3.
Follow @lesliebradshaw

Jolie O'Dell is a tech reporter for VentureBeat. After years of covering the tech industry for major publications, she decided to go back to school in 2010 and study Computer Science.
Follow @jolieodell

lbarron:Another woman in technology to follow.

Shira Lazar is creator and host of What's Trending on CBS News. Lazar is a social media power-user, and definitely worth following if you want the latest on what people are buzzing about online.
Follow @shiralazar

Caterina Fake is a serial tech entrepreneur: She co-founded Flickr, a popular photo-sharing site, and Hunch, an online collective intelligence service.
Follow @caterina

Once the girls are finally introduced to such studies, if they are introduced at all, they find that they also have to battle with the fact that as a girl, they have to think about other factors such as being "normal" teenagers and learning new things, such as being one.

Even if female students show an interest in such topics, if it is not a thing that is "in" therefore it will not be a topic to be pursued by any young girl because it is not cool enough to be in at that particular time. This issue is currently taking place in public and private schools and not only in Canada but it is a global issue, the reality is that if it is harder for young women in North America and other developed countries, we can only imagine how hard it must be for women in underdeveloped countries. But that is another topic altogether.

To return to focusing on the educational part of young women in cutting edge, we must also understand that if women come from at-risk neighbourhoods, it will make it very hard to access technology, therefore blocking the opportunity for some talented individuals that can come from such neighbourhoods yet not having the chance to be discovered. We are far behind our neighbours where recently Obama has granted financial support to enhance the interest and educate the teachers in STEM sector.

There are also many grants available to people that are interested in pursuing further education in this sector in United States. Canada is lacking the funds and leadership material to generate such opportunities. We do not have female mentors available to young women to see that being a part of the technology, science, engineering and mathematics sector is actually acceptable. Taking time to pursue it is not just a waste but it can be turned into a profitable career and still be cool.

By granting opportunities to youth at an early age and introducing them to such education will offer them a window of opportunity to explore a career in technology and beyond. It wouldn't be so bad if financial support and mentorship was accessible not only to the ones that can afford it, but to everyone that has interest in it.